3. Game of Thrones, “Blackwater”

For a fantasy saga about kings and dragons, Game of Thrones is very intimate, choosing conversations and verbal sparring over effects spectacles and battle scenes. But it gets epic with a capital E in this high-water (and flaming-water) mark when it pares down its usual sweep across story lines and continents to focus on the fight for capital King’s Landing in the series’ central civil war. Even in pitched battle, some of the episode’s hardest blows are psychological as it depicts the darkest moments within the besieged castle, with royals and subjects huddling with candles and poison. It delivers on a grand scale when sympathetic antihero Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) executes a brilliant tactical defense on behalf of his thankless and undeserving royal relatives. “Those are brave men knocking at our door,” he exhorts his men before battle. “Let’s go kill them.” For this spectacular hour, Game of Thrones killed it.